The end of Christopher Dormer

This looks like it's the end of the Christopher Dorner saga.

He was never going to be allowed to tell his side of the story.

However, I don't believe this story is going to be allowed to die, with allegations that the cabin was torched by police. Make up your own mind – I doubt if we're going to know for certain.

Christopher Dorner standoff: suspect holed up after deputy killed

Fate of fugitive former police officer uncertain after cabin hideout becomes engulfed in flames after shootout with police

the Guardian,

13 February, 2013

Police Swat teams with armoured vehicles have laid siege to a blazing forest cabin outside Los Angeles where the fugitive Christopher Dorner made what appeared to be a last stand, killing one deputy sheriff and wounding another in a fierce gun battle before the cabin was engulfed in flames.

Hundreds of officers backed by helicopters and military equipment watched the fire destroy the cabin and smoke plume overhead on Tuesday amid uncertainty over the fate of Dorner, 33, who barricaded himself inside after failing to escape a dragnet.

With the sun setting and temperatures dropping police surrounded the area and sealed off roads to prevent the former LAPD officer fleeing the snow-covered San Bernardino mountains.

The blaze began soon after teargas was fired into and around the cabin. A single gunshot was heard, after which no more shots were fired from inside. Officers surrounding the cabin visibly relaxed as hours passed and the blaze slowly reduced the structure to a charred skeleton.

Much of the dramatic climax to Dorner's bloody vendetta against the force unfolded live on television, transfixing viewers. A reporter for a local station, KCAL, broadcast the sound of screaming and hundreds of gunshots at the beginning of the siege.

After eluding the biggest manhunt in living memory for five days the former navy reservist surfaced around midday Tuesday when he stole a white Dodge pick-up truck near Angelus Oaks, a remote wooded area about 20 miles from Big Bear, which had been the focus of the search.

The vehicle's owners notified authorities that a man fitting Dorner's description had stolen the vehicle. Fish and Wildlife officers intercepted and pursued Dorner. He crashed, allegedly exchanged gunfire with the officers and broke into an unoccupied rental cabin.

Reinforcements from the San Bernardino sheriff's department swiftly surrounded it. Dorner threw a smoke bomb and tried to flee on foot, only to retreat back inside. In the fusillade two deputies were shot. Both were evacuated to Loma Linda University medical centre. One died of his wounds. The other underwent surgery and was expected to survive.

The dramatic images were likely to boost Dorner's status as a heroic outlaw to a small but vocal online community which has cheered his rampage as comeuppance for an allegedly racist and violent police force.

The deputy's death brought to four the number Dorner has allegedly killed in a vendetta against the LAPD, which sacked him in 2008.

Before his rampage Dorner posted a lengthy online "manifesto" which accused the department of racism and deception, and named about 40 people on a hit list.

"You're going to see what a whistleblower can do when you take everything from him especially his NAME!!!" he wrote. "You have awoken a sleeping giant."

The revenge allegedly began on 3 February with the killing of Monica Quan, 28, the daughter of a retired police captain, and her fiance Keith Lawrence, 27. They were shot dead in their car.

Last Thursday, four days later, Dorner allegedly exchanged shots with a patrol, grazing one officer in the head, and later allegedly ambushed two other officers, killing one, Michael Crain, 34, a veteran, and wounding the other, a trainee.

He vanished after abandoning and burning his damaged pick-up truck on a forest road in Big Bear, a snowy ski resort. He eluded a massive manhunt, prompting a $1m bounty for his capture.

Dorner, it has now emerged, apparently trekked about 20 miles over a ridge to Angelus Oaks and invaded a home, tying up its two occupants, and lay low while police searched the mountains in vain.

With the search in that area winding down it was unclear what prompted his attempt to flee on Tuesday.

As TV showed a raging battle around the cabin its owner, Candy Martin, 85, tuned in from LA and watched "in a state of shock", she told the LA Times. It was easy to break into but had no cable, phone, internet or firearms, she said. "I hope that they catch him and this whole horrible thing is put to rest."

BREAKING: Accused Cop Killer, Chris Dorner, Found Dead in Burned Cabin

KTLA,

12 February, 2013

BIG BEAR — An LAPD source confirmed to KTLA that a body found inside a burned out cabin in Big Bear is believed to be that of accused cop-killer Christopher Dorner.

Authorities are in the process of removing his body from the cabin.

The fugitive former officer had been holed up in the cabin for several hours on Tuesday afternoon.

At one point, police broke windows, pumped in tear gas and blasted a loud speaker urging Dorner to surrender.

When they got no response, police deployed a vehicle to rip down the walls of the cabin “one by one, like peeling an onion,” a law enforcement official said.

By the time they got to the last wall, authorities heard a single gunshot, the source said.

Then flames began to spread through the structure, and gunshots, probably set off by the fire, were heard.

A tall plume of smoke was rising from the area where the standoff occurred.

Hundreds of law enforcement personnel swooped down on the site near Big Bear after the gun battles between Dorner and officers that broke out in the snow-covered mountains where the fugitive had been eluding a massive manhunt since his truck was found burning in the area late last week.

Law enforcement personnel in military-style gear and armed with high-powered weapons were involved in a tense standoff after Dorner took refuge in the cabin Tuesday afternoon